NT Reporter
Panaji
The Supreme Court is likely to hear on Monday Goa’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging an order of the High Court of Bombay at Goa directing the state government to declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding areas as a tiger reserve.
The apex court has allowed the tiger reserve matter to be placed high on board before the Chief Justice’s court room No 1.
It may be noted that the High Court, in its ruling on July 24, 2023, had mandated that the Goa government must declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding areas as a tiger reserve within a three-month time-frame. Additionally, the High Court had also ordered the state government to formulate a comprehensive tiger conservation plan during the same period.
The Goa government, however, filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order.
In its judgment, the High Court had underscored the need to prioritise national interests over regional, parochial and narrow political considerations at the state level when it came to conserving and safeguarding the tiger and its habitat.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has emphasised the significance of Goa’s Western Ghats strip as a crucial link for tiger conservation.
The state’s inaction comes despite the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s 2011 communication highlighting the region’s potential as a prime tiger habitat.
In its affidavit before the apex court, the NTCA has said it was important to enhance the protection regime, create inviolate core areas, maintain a healthy prey population within the wildlife sanctuary, ensure rivers were not dammed and secure connectivity with neighbouring tiger bearing areas by regulating land use patterns hostile to tiger conservation.
